Until a few days ago, a search of Amazon’s catalog of books using the word “abortion” turned up pages with the question, “Did you mean adoption?” at the top, followed by a list of books related to abortion.

Amazon removed that question from the search results page after it received a complaint from a member of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, a national organization based in Washington.

In short, it seemed to the pro-choice group that Amazon had an editorial opinion. I am quite sure this is not true (Amazon denies it), but it’s yet another example of how we see ourselves reflected – at least how we wish to see ourselves reflected – in the cultural mirror that is search. Amazon decided to disable the search suggestion, which, to be honest, *is* an editorial decision.

Honestly, I think this is thing with Amazon was just the software they were running; it did not know the word “abortion” and found the closest related word in it’s vocabulary list “adoption”. No one deliberately put that there – it just happened.

Reminds me of the stories about how inappropiate contextual advertising would occasionally appear next to news stories (I’m thinking of the case about a year ago in the New York Times when there was a grusome murder and some one was discovered packed in a suitcase – meanwhile a contextual ad for “sports luggage” appeared next to the story. It was quickly noticed and corrected – but no one deliberately set that up….it just happened.

Like you say, it’s an editorial decision how it’s handled – since some people want to be offended by this kind of thing – it makes sense to accomodate them up to a point. As long as they leave out that part with Amazon being Anti Choice or Pro Choice – Amazon probably had no position .